It was HOT today...

[adam_knox]

Well, chalk me up for life lessons learned. Had a small fire surrounding the oil bath air filter! Fried the anti-stall solenoid wires. Was at a friends house who THANKFULLY had a fire extinguisher handy (lesson #1 HAVE FIRE EXTINGUISHER WITH CAR). Her dad had all the tools I needed (lesson #2 THE CAR TOOL BOX STAYS IN THE CAR).

Glad I had kept the engine compartment clean, coulda been really ugly if there was oil residue on nearby surfaces.

Now I get to be a detective and figure out the cause. Here's the facts leading up to the Great March Fire:

-Car was warmed up and shut off for about five minutes

-Went to start the car, just cranked. Thought I had flooded it. Sat for about 30 seconds, noticed smoke

-Fire was under oil bath

Not sure if it was caused by a spark from the anti-stall wires, poor timing (haven't timed in it three years, but was perfect three yrs ago), exhaust manifold gasket is leaking, carb was rebuilt last summer (but noticed dripping after the fire).

All of the above are getting addressed no matter what, just curious for future reference...A'ight, I'm gonna have a soda and start shopping for a fire extinguisher!

[40plyrod]

Sounds like a pop through the carb to me.

[martybose]

While it is easy (and cheap) to find a dry chemical extinguisher, with a bit more effort and $ you can find an extinguisher that is a halon-equivalent one. They put out a fire faster and don't leave a dusty mess to clean up.

Marty

[55 Fargo]

Adam, always always, have fire extinguisher on board.

I had my choke wiring go up in smoke a few years back, nothing happend, very lucky.

2 years ago while welding in some screw holes on the under side of the rear fenders into the body, I caught the old back seat on fire, very narrowly avoided tragedy, I got the flames out very quick, then opened my garage doors, and yanked the seats out, and threw them into the snow, where they burnt.

I had a small fire extinquisher, thankfully, my big one was in for re-charge. I was very very lucky, but did breath up some nasty fumes as a result, and a 2 hour clean-up, could have been much worse.......Fred

[randroid]

Gents,

A few years ago there was a discussion on a VW Bug forum (thesamba.com) about the merits of different types of extinguishers, but then we VW owners are prone to think about fires in our cars. Anyway, it was universally agreed that halon-equivalent extinguishers could douse a fire fastest but were designed to be used within a closed space (like a room), and if there's the slightest breeze (like under the hood) the halon will simply drift away whereas the less effective dry chemical will stick to whatever it touches and still work.

I'll stay with the dry chemical type in all my cars.

-Randy

[adam_knox]

You know, the white dust wasn't so bad honestly. There was an air compressor handy to blow off the dust. Murphy's Law that I had just washed the car earlier that day...

[Frank Elder]

It sounds positively barbaric but I keep a couple of buckets of sand/dirt mix in my work area....smothers a fire like a charm.

extingusher for bigger fires:eek:

[randroid]

FRANKIE,

I'm with you. I keep extra salt around the kitchen and if there's ever a fire (a very rare occurrence) salt will douse a grease fire ridiculously fast and there's almost no clean up.

-Randy